Animal captivity and the threat to global health The dangers to animal and human health created by zoos and the exotic pet industry have again been highlighted in the wake of a potential avian flu pandemic. The fact that the avian flu virus H5N1 entered Britain through the importation of birds for the pet trade comes as no surprise to the Captive Animals' Protection Society (CAPS), which has been exposing the disease threats posed by the wildlife trade for the past decade.
Newspaper reports claim that the parrot who died of avian flu was found at an Essex quarantine centre owned by Pegasus Birds. These animal dealers are well known to CAPS and we have filmed and photographed them at exotic pet markets in the UK since 2002. It is believed that the parrot, imported from South America, may have become infected after coming into contact with birds imported from Taiwan. The birds came into contact at the Essex quarantine centre. According to The Times newspaper: "An alternative possibility is that birds in an earlier batch delivered to the facility could have had a "subclinical" infection and began secreting the virus only after the stresses of quarantine. Contaminated droppings could have released the airborne virus that may have infected subsequent batches of birds from Taiwan and South America." TEMPORARY BAN
The import of birds as pets is seen as the main threat of introducing bird flu, because 232,000 exotic birds and pets have been brought into the EU in the three months leading up to the incident in Essex. In September, three workers at an Indonesian zoo were hospitalised with suspected H5N1 avian influenza. Four children who had visited the zoo were also under treatment in hospital, and it was reported that another 115 zoo visitors had symptoms. The zoo was closed after 19 captive birds tested positive for the H5N1 virus. At least one other zoo has been shut after the virus was also discovered in birds there. Since 2003 63 people have died across south-east Asia from the virus. The World Health Organization said that bird flu was moving toward becoming transmissible between humans and that the international community had no time to waste to prevent a pandemic. Most of the people killed so far caught the virus from infected birds. Health experts say the greatest worry is that H5N1 could mutate and become transmissible between people. The Animal Protection Agency, backed by leading experts in public and animal health, is calling on the British government to enforce the ban on exotic bird markets in the UK because of the risks created by avian flu. NIGHTMARE SCENARIO The BBC recently investigated a UK bird fair, and interviewed Neil Forbes, one of the country's leading bird vets. Forbes told the BBC: "These places are a cauldron of infection. How can you honestly have a hall filled with birds, some of whom have potentially fatal infections to humans, where the public are allowed to walk in? It's madness. It's horrific to think that the next day you might have a Women's Institute meeting or a créche or whatever and have old people breathing in this dust. Or children crawling around the floor, up close to the floor and chairs, breathing in potentially infected particles. "The nightmare scenario is you could import a bird from the Far East that carries this virus, that brings it into an auction hall and spreads it to a number of others," Mr Forbes added. Julian Hughes, the RSPB's Head of Species Conservation, said: "The RSPB thinks that the risk of avian influenza being brought into the country through bird trade and through these bird fairs is far greater than from migratory water fowl coming in or from migration from Siberia. "So we think that the Government has to act, and act quickly at a European level to ban the trade in wild birds." PREVENTING OUTBREAKS OF DISEASE
A study published this year in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases called for greater control of contact between species, including humans, as the most practical approach in preventing outbreaks of disease transmission. The study notes: "The global trade in wildlife provides disease transmission mechanisms that not only cause human disease outbreaks but also threaten livestock, international trade, rural livelihoods, native wildlife populations, and the health of ecosystems." According to the report: avian flu was recently found in two eagles illegally imported to Belgium from Thailand; a highly infectious paramyxovirus entered Italy through a shipment of parrots, lovebirds, and finches imported from Pakistan for the pet trade; monkeypox was introduced to a native rodent species and subsequently to humans in the United States by importing wild African rodents from Ghana for the US pet trade; chytridiomycosis, a fungal disease now identified as a major cause of the extinction of 30% of amphibian species worldwide, has been spread by the international trade in African clawed frogs. The report's authors conclude: "Focusing efforts at [wildlife] markets to regulate, reduce, or in some cases, eliminate the trade in wildlife could provide a cost-effective approach to decrease the risks for disease for humans, domestic animals, wildlife, and ecosystems." CAPS is strengthening calls for an end to the importation of wild animals into the UK for the exotic pet trade, circuses and zoos. WHAT YOU CAN DO The Government intend to legalise exotic pet fairs despite the fact that they have been illegal for over 20 years and are recognised as a huge potential risk for the transmission of disease between animals and to people.
Photographs © Captive Animals Protection Society |
A
temporary ban on the import of live wild birds into the EU and on
bird fairs and exhibitions has been put in place in the wake of
avian flu. The Belgian environment minister has accused Britain
of being the only EU country to oppose banning pet bird imports
at a ministers meeting in March.
